internal conversion

gamma decay

...decay, known as gamma emission, gamma rays (photons, or packets of electromagnetic energy, of extremely short wavelength) are radiated. Gamma decay also includes two other electromagnetic processes, internal conversion and internal pair production. In internal conversion, excess energy in a nucleus is directly transferred to one of its own orbiting electrons, thereby ejecting the electron from...

gamma radiation

...(Alternatively to gamma emission, an excited nucleus may transform to a lower energy state by ejecting an electron from the cloud surrounding the nucleus. This orbital electron ejection is known as internal conversion and gives rise to an energetic electron and often an X-ray as the atomic cloud fills in the empty orbital of the ejected electron. The ratio of internal conversion to the...